Inquiring Minds Want to Know
Author's note: Having met Illyana I assume John Constantine would want to know more about the girl. This is the sequel to Mistakes Were Made.
"So, I take it the merchandise meets with your approval"?
John was standing in a rather empty 20 foot by 20 foot storage locker, it was one of his magic casting sites that he had hidden away in outer London; one that he used for less… savory castings.
John was dressed in his usual attire with his trade mark trench coat and smoking a fag (as always) and possessing a rather large bandage over his nose. He was currently standing outside of a bloody pentagram enclosed by a circle. Candles were burning at each of the pentagram points. Something… unpleasant was in the center of the pentagram along with a cardboard box. The thing, if it was anything, kept shifting form. One second it was a swirling mass of multi colored smokes, another second transformed into a statue apparently assembled from various body parts, another second and it was something that made you want to remove your ability to see.
"And for fucks sake stop with the shifting shapes, you know it gives me a bleeding headache".
The transforming swirl paused for a moment and then shifted into a kindly old man dressed in grey robes and wearing a grey wizard hat (yes he looked just like Gandalf from Lord of the Rings minus the staff).
The kindly looking old man had a voice to match. "Yes the goods are as described John. I am well pleased".
The old man bent over, opened the box, and extracted a record. It was an original pressing of the Beetle's Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Harts Club band. "I see the full set of their work is here, virgin and unplayed. Exquisite".
"Glad you're happy. Took quite a bit of effort getting that lot".
The old man extracted the record from the LP sleeve and sniffed it. "Pristine, untouched. You can almost hear the intonations of that era". Then he took a bit out of the record, chewed, and sighed in pleasure. "Delicious. I get by with a little help from my friends".
"Well enough of that, munch on your own time. Now answer my questions".
The man took another small bite "You know the rules John, ask away. I'll use this record as an indicator as to the balance on your account".
"Let's start with the sword first. How'd she get a hold of it and just how bonkers has it driven her"?
"She acquired the sword because somebody extracted it from where it had been hidden and she sensed its location and took it from the one who extracted it. And the sword has not driven her bonkers as you say, quite the opposite in fact".
"How is she immune to its effects then? I looked at that thing when it was stuck in a rock years ago and it scared me shitless".
"Because it's her sword John. For anyone else the emotions of the sword's creation tend to be overwhelming and cause… complications for those who hold it. But for the sword's creator… well it's just a part of her returning home as it were".
John snorted smoke out his nose in disagreement "Bull. Don't know much about the sword because I didn't want to know, but what little I do know says the bird who created it died".
"Yes. Yes she did. Five years ago. Recently a… version of her was brought back. A rather angry version".
John took a drag on his smoke while he mulled over the answers. "She's a demon, but the normal rules don't appear to work with her. Why"?
The old man took another bite, a very large bite as his jaws appeared to somehow stretch. His answer was a bit muffled due to his full mouth.
"There are demons and there are demons John. Rules in part depend on the making. First there are the fallen, like me, rules are very strict for the fallen. Then there are the joiners, powerful or weak entities that over time decided to play for, what I dearly hope is, the winning team. Most and/or all the rules apply to them as well. Offspring of course also fall under the rules except for a few who end up with a special dispensations. Then there are the transformed ones, either voluntary or involuntary; rules tend to get fuzzy with them. Finally there are the special case situations. She's one of these, the special ones".
He swallowed with a little shiver of pleasure and continued.
"She… well the first version of her was just a little Russian girl tricked into limbo by Belasco; I believe you know of him. His purpose was to transform her over time into a living gateway for the old gods to return as he systematically corrupted her and used her soul to forge bloodstones. Well… that didn't go per plan, by the age of thirteen she forged that little trinket that you're so concerned about and used it to overthrow Belasco as the ruler of limbo. Heck, talk about being an overachiever, at that age you were still trying to figure out how to cop a feel from the locals chickies while she was taking control of an entire pocket dimension. To cut to the chase she ended up killing herself to end that little escapade I believe called Inferno when she was 17 or so. That's when the sword ended up in the rock".
"Five years or so later Belasco was back in charge of limbo and had more than a few screws loose. He got it fixed in his head that she was still alive and did some kind of summoning ritual you really should only do if the item exists. Well the item, in this case her, did not so a version of the item ended up being created. But this was mostly the darker aspects of her, or so Belasco thought; boy did he get that both wrong and right. He ends up torturing and raping the shit out of her because she's not the little blond toy he was hoping to recover, before throwing her out into limbo. Remember what I said about being an overachiever? This time it only took her a day before Belasco is toast, dead this time, and did it without the sword I might add. A few months later she recovers the sword, has some kind of breakdown, and then vanished for a few days before coming back".
The old man swallowed and took another small bite. "Rules are… not quite understood in relation to her".
"If she's so bleeding powerful then why haven't I heard of her before"?
"There's lots of entities you haven't heard of John. But to be more specific she's not a player in the traditional demonic scene".
John puffed on the last of his fag "What does she want"?
The old man smiled. "What do all demons want John"?
John frowned in disgust "Souls. So she is just a soul junkie like the rest of you blokes. I thought she wasn't a traditional player"?
"Na, just looking for one soul. The one she lost. Her own".
John rebutted "Demons don't have souls".
"Yep" relied the old man as he ate another piece of the record. Only one small chip was left. "Now if you believe that then how does a demon go about losing something they don't have? Demon losing her soul, demon trying to get back her soul. Wonder what happens if or when that occurs? As I said she's one of the special ones".
"Ok, why Clarkson? How does he fit in all this"?
The old man popped the last piece of the record into his mouth. "He doesn't, just got in the way... well in your way I guess. She was having a drive with him because one of her therapist's is a friend of Clarkson and thought a road trip would be a good idea for her. No apparently dark plans at all, just a girl out for a few days driving. That is until you buried yourself balls deep in it John and dug yourself one heck of a pit".
John was opened mouthed in astonishment "Therapist? She has a therapist"?
"Several I think. I guess even hell lords have issues".
Hell lord? Oh fuck of fucks this just keeps getting better.
"Pleasure doing business with you John. I even got a two for the price of one out of this little dinner chat".
John got a sinking feeling "Two for one? Shit you sold me out".
"Already sold before you even summoned me John. Who do you think she asked about you"?
"Crap", John tossed his fag on the floor and crushed the remains. "Hope you got a good price".
"Just half of my underlings".
John lit another cigarette. "Half of your what"?
The old man sighed. "She only killed half of my underlings. Said it was a bargain and that she was doing me a favor. As much as I hate to admit it, she was right".
John was shocked "How on earth was that a good bargain"?
"Anybody who is unable to recognize a hell lord politely knocking on their master's door as it were is not worth the bother or risk to employ. From her perspective I now owed her. The price was everything I knew about you and… whatever you asked about her if you ever came a knocking".
"And you paid"?
'She can be quite persuasive, wouldn't you say"?
The old man morphed one more time, into a dense black smoke with a set of smiling bloody teeth embedded within the smoke.
"Accounts dry unless you want to open a line of credit"?
"Naaa, you blokes are worse then the credit card sharks".
"Just twelve easy payments? No? Well then be seeing you John. Good luck and watch that mouth of yours or I might be seeing you sooner then you'd like".
"Yea, yea, yea regular fount of wisdom aren't you".
A red eye opened in the blank smoke. "Here's a freebie for you John, being that you're such a good customer. She's getting all kinds of offer's for one or all of your little terms of service. Some of the offers are very impressive I might add".
"Blast, didn't take long for the twa... girl to put me up on Craig's list".
"She didn't, to my knowledge she's completely ignored the offers. You managed to achieve that all by yourself Johnny boy. That little escapade of yours attracted all kinds of attention. Remember, play nice or who knows what might end up owning a piece of your ass".
"You in the bidding as it were"?
"Yep. Now if I could just find something she wants".
The creature started to fade away. "Funny, I'd have thought you'd have wanted to know her name".
The black smoke faded away, along with the box, and the candle flames flickered and were extinguished, lazy trails of smoke now rose into the air from the blackened wicks.
"Well shit" was John's response as he berated himself.